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ABOUT US |
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BJ Sports, Inc. * New
Owner * New Manager.. |
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Store owner Ed Sommers and
manager John Speckine want you to know right up front that you should
expect to be treated like an old hunting or fishing buddy when you walk
into BJ's. We'll poke fun, tell bad jokes, and expect you to poke
fun and tell bad jokes right back at us. Don't take
anything we say in the store too seriously. It's all in good fun.
Ed and John have known each
other since the summer 2000 when they both joined that incarnation of the
locally-known bar-band 'Border Line'. They spent the next four years
rehearsing nearly every week and playing almost every Friday and Saturday
night. They were the 'comedy relief' of the group and were guilty of
many a practical joke on a fellow band member or a snappy retort to one
another during a show. They both experienced the highlight of their musical careers in September
2002 when the band was invited to open for country heavy-weights Keith Urban and Montgomery Gentry (we
won't go into detail here about the long, blonde wig John sported in
front of 20,000 people, but feel free to bring it up).
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Nowadays, Ed is a
Medical Laboratory professional at a large Health System in
South Bend. While not an avid
hunter or fisherman himself, he's learning on the fly during his
trips to the store. It is the full intent of John and
several of the local charter captains to |
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Ed
in his band promo shot. |
| get Ed and his family out for a
day on the Lake to convert yet another lost soul to the siren
song of Lake Michigan fishing. (Man, that was beautiful -
I may weep.) |
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| Proud
disabled vet and former
Atlanta Braves scout (which has nothing to do with BJ's - he
just likes to brag about it) John handles the
day-to-day operations. He was signed by the Reds in 1984
as a catcher (a position he played from 1969 - 1994 with the
knees to prove it), but you've never heard of him. He's been into hunting and fishing
since before his first baseball game. His paternal grandparents
owned a fishing lodge in Ontario in the 1960s and this put the bug in his
brain to make a living from hunting and fishing. To this
end, he has been a |
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John
had to have that fish surgically removed from his right ear. |
| hunting and fishing guide for the better
part of 25 years, charging for his services since 1993 (Big
Lake Outdoors). |
John is also an accomplished
teller of tall tales and worked as a stand-up comedian for six months in
the late 1980s, so be ready to listen to the occasionally
embroidered, but still 100% true, hunting or fishing story.
Honest.
Click
here to read some of John's lies (but really true - seriously).
He is currently planning a
series of free seminars for area young hunters and fishermen entitled "Fishing Lies and You: A Beginner's Guide to Tale
Embellishment". He will use skills passed down to him from his
Texas-born father, which he has honed over the years, and embellish as he
was taught by his maternal grandfather (100% Irishman that he was) and
Native American grandmother.
He is certain these seminars
will receive high praise and support from both parenting groups and school
boards throughout the region. In fact, a tour of multi-million
dollar, internationally known businesses is being planned to help teach
these skills to sales, support, and executive staff members for use in
their daily interaction with vendors and customers alike.
But then again, they probably
don't really need our help with that.
We'll see you in the store!!
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